An Overview of the Sport
Baseball is largely referred to as the pastime or national sport of the US since it originated from the country before spreading rapidly to nations such as Tunisia, Australia, Spain, England, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands (Mahony, 2014). The sport was rapidly popularized for the fact that it was thought to mirror the spirit of the nation. Although there have been many publications on the origin of baseball, a consensus was only reached recently, and it suggests that the old English games such as stool ball, and rounders influenced its development (Furst, 2014). The sport became a professional venture in the US when the Civil War was completed in the 1860s. During that time, the sport attracted commercial sponsorship through armature baseball continued to be prevalent in most parts of the nation. In fact, professional and amateur baseballs were separated from each other in 1871 (Furst, 2014). The sport was also more popular among specific ethnic groups around the US such as African Americans, German Americans, Irish Americans, but has since grown to be a sport for the nation through gaining prevalence among all ethnic groups.
Unlike some other sports that would rely on individual effort, baseball is a team sport, played by nine players on each team. The fact that effective teamwork is required for a perfect results means that there should be effective training for the players on skills that could be critical for winning. Therefore, the objective of this training manual is to impart the relevant coaching skills that would be useful in attaining success as a team and in instilling individual brilliance among the team members. Individual skills are useful because according to coach’s understanding, a team should work on both teamwork and individual brilliance skills since they later might prove the difference in some tightly contested matches. The training manual described herein seeks to describe seven issues, the coaching philosophy, offensive principles, defensive principles, mid-term skill planning sheets, year round baseball program calendar, and fundraising programs described subsequently.
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Chapter 1: Coaching Philosophy
This chapter describes the adopted philosophy towards baseball and the connection the same viewpoint has with the leadership skills. Specifically, the chapter describes the connection between preferred transformational leadership skills and the ability to help others take their baseball careers to greater heights. Unlike other coaches, the chapter describes that winning and losing matches should not be considered the central tenent to the existence of coaching, but rather, coaches should focus on improving their student athletes.
Chapter 2: Offensive Principles
Within this section of the manual, the coach is described as having a flexible offensive principle, and gives a rationale for it. For instance, it is indicated that currently the adopted offensive philosophy is small ball, which is a very important part of offense and strategy in baseball. However, this strategy is not rigid since as the chapter describes, it is likely to change in relation to the types of players with whom the coach will work. Under this strategy, as the manual describes, two approaches, the hit and run and bunting approaches will be used.
Chapter 3: Defensive Principles
In this part, the manual defines the approach of the coach towards defending. For instance, it describes that the overall program development will be built on the mother of education, repetitions. According to this chapter, defensive success will be based on being prepared for all situations that can happen during the game. The program will take great pride in being prepared for all situations. Moreover, every player will know his role in all situations. It is also indicated that the program will pride itself on defense and pitching and that the pitchers need to be able to throw strikes this is very critical to playing good defense.
Chapter 4: Mid Term: Skill Planning Sheets
This subdivision comprises the different skills that the coach will teach the student athletes. Specifically, it describes the hit and run tactic while describing the tactical knowledge that players are required to have if they are to excel at it. It is noted that the approach is a high-risk high-yield approach to baseball, which is why individual brilliance is a factor that all the players should execute during play.
Chapter 5: Year Round Baseball Program Calendar
The objective of this chapter is to outline the baseball calendar for the year, which will be useful in indicating the active and passive periods for the team. Of critical importance in this section is the indication of competitions and their venues, which will serve to prepare the players in advance for challenges before them.
Chapter 6: Fund Raising
Baseball, like most other sports, requires investment in equipment and welfare of the players. Therefore, this chapter describes the projected budget for the same and what the fundraisers are projected to raise towards the funding of such issues.
Chapter 7: Baseball Conditioning Program
The rationale for this section is to maintain the players in a physical state that will allow them to remain as competitive as possible for the entire season. Therefore, it will describe all the fitness programs that the players will undergo as well as the rest periods they will be accorded during the season.
References
Furst, R. T. (2014). Early professional baseball and the sporting press: Shaping the image of the game . Jefferson, N.C. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers.
Mahony, P. (2014). Baseball explained . Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
